Turkey threatens to block Finland and Sweden Nato bids

MAY 17: Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the two Scandinavian nations need not send delegations to convince Turkey, a key Nato member, of their bids. He is angered by what he sees as their willingness to host Kurdish militants. Earlier, Sweden said Europe was living in a dangerous new reality, referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the move by Finland and Sweden to join the 30-member military alliance did not threaten Moscow directly - but stressed that any expansion of military infrastructure would trigger a response from the Kremlin. At a news conference on Monday, Mr Erdogan said Turkey opposed the Finnish and the Swedish bids to join Nato, describing Sweden as a "hatchery" for terrorist organisations. "Neither of these countries have a clear, open attitude towards terrorist organisation. How can we trust them?" the Turkish president said. Turkey accuses the two Nordic nations of harbouring members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group it views as a terrorist organisation, and followers of Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt. Mr Erdogan's government has also pledged to block applications from countries that have imposed sanctions on it. In 2019, both Nordic nations slapped an arms embargo on Ankara after its incursion into Syria. Sweden has formally announced its decision to join Nato, a move that will end the Scandinavian country's centuries-long military non-alignment. "Nato will strengthen Sweden, Sweden will strengthen Nato," Ms Andersson said at a briefing in Stockholm on Monday. She said Europe was now living in a dangerous new reality, referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Last week, Sweden's neighbour Finland said it would seek Nato membership. Russia criticised both announcements. "We are leaving one era behind us and entering a new one," Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told lawmakers in Stockholm on Monday. She said a formal application could be handed within several days and would be synchronised with Finland. Nato has signalled its willingness to admit the two new members. However, Ms Andersson stressed that Sweden did not want permanent Nato bases or nuclear weapons on its territory. Norway, Denmark and Iceland - all Nato members - immediately said they were ready to support Sweden and Finland by all means necessary if they came under attack. The UK, also a Nato member, has already given security guarantees to Sweden and Finland to cover the transition period. Monday's announcement by Sweden came as Nato began one of its biggest exercises in the Baltic region, involving some 15,000 troops. Named "Hedgehog", the drills in Estonia involve 10 countries, including Finland and Sweden. For Finland and Sweden to join Nato, all 30 existing members must say yes. But for now, one is saying no. President Erdogan says he won't agree to admit countries which apply sanctions on Turkey. Sweden suspended arms sales to Turkey three years ago, following Ankara's military intervention in Syria. And according to the official Turkish news agency, both Finland and Sweden have rejected dozens of requests to extradite Kurdish militants who Turkey describes as terrorists. Both countries are sending delegations to Ankara to try and solve the problem, but President Erdogan says they shouldn't bother. He seems determined to extract a price for his precious vote. On Sunday, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said he was confident that Finland and Sweden would both join, despite Turkish objections. The issue is likely to dominate discussions between Mr Blinken and his Turkish opposite number in Washington on Wednesday. Having encouraged the two Nordic countries to apply, Washington won't want to let them down at the 11th hour.

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Finland to join Nato military alliance on Tuesday

APRIL 4: The application was prompted by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, with which Finland shares a long border. Turkey had delayed the application, complaining that Finland was supporting "terrorists". Sweden applied to join

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NATO chief urges Turkey to let Nordic pair join quickly

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday urged Turkey to ratify the applications of Finland and Sweden to join the military organization.

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Sweden and Finland's journey from neutral to Nato

JUNE 29: Russia strongly opposes the two states joining and has used the expansion of the West's defensive military alliance as a pretext for its war in Ukraine. Both countries have held neutral status for years, but since Russia's invasion of Ukraine support for Nato membership has risen dramatically. Why join now? Vladimir Putin's actions have shattered a long-standing sense of stability in northern Europe, leaving Sweden and Finland feeling vulnerable. Finnish ex-Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said joining the alliance was a "done deal" for his country as soon as Russian troops invaded Ukraine on 24 February. For many Finns, events in Ukraine bring a haunting sense of familiarity. The Soviets invaded Finland in late 1939. For more than three months the Finnish army put up fierce resistance, despite being heavily outnumbered. They avoided occupation, but ended up losing 10% of their territory. Watching the war in Ukraine unfold was like reliving this history, said Iro Sarkka, a political scientist at the University of Helsinki. Finns were looking at their 1,340km (830 mile) border with Russia, she said, and thinking: "Could this happen to us?" Sweden has also felt endangered in recent years, with several reported airspace violations by Russian military aircraft. In 2014, Swedes were transfixed by reports that a Russian submarine was lurking in the shallow waters of the Stockholm archipelago. Two years later Sweden's army returned to the small but strategically important Baltic Sea island of Gotland, after abandoning it for two decades. What will change? In some ways, not much. Sweden and Finland became official partners of Nato in 1994 and have since become major contributors to the alliance. They have taken part in several Nato missions since the end of the Cold War. The two countries will for the first time have security guarantees from nuclear states under Nato's Article 5, which views an attack on one member state as an attack on all. Historian Henrik Meinander said Finns were mentally prepared for membership, following a succession of small steps towards Nato since the fall of the Soviet Union. In 1992, Helsinki bought 64 US combat planes. Three years later, it joined the European Union, alongside Sweden, and every Finnish government since then has reviewed the so-called Nato option. The army, which serves a population of 5.5 million, has a wartime strength of 280,000 soldiers, and 900,000 reservists in total. Sweden took a different path in the 1990s, reducing the size of its military and changing priorities from territorial defence to peacekeeping missions around the world. But that all changed in 2014, when Russia seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine. Conscription returned and defence spending was boosted. In 2018, every household received army pamphlets titled "if crisis or war comes" - the first time they were sent out since 1991. Finland has already reached Nato's agreed defence spending target of 2% of GDP, and Sweden has drawn up plans to do so. What are the risks? Russian President Vladimir Putin believes Nato expansion is a direct threat to his country's security, so Sweden and Finland joining the alliance will be perceived as a provocation. Russia's foreign ministry says both countries have been warned of the "consequences" of such a move. Former President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of the Russian leader, has warned that Nato accession may prompt Moscow to deploy nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania. While not dismissing these threats, Alexander Stubb suggested a more realistic risk was of Russian cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns and occasional airspace violations. Will Nato make Sweden and Finland safer? There is a significant minority, at least in Sweden, who believe it will not. Deborah Solomon, from the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, argued that Nato's nuclear deterrence increased tensions and risked an arms race with Russia. This complicated peace efforts, she said, and made Sweden a less safe place. Another fear is that in joining the alliance, Sweden would lose its leading role in global nuclear disarmament efforts. Many of Sweden's Nato-sceptics look back to the period between the 1960s and '80s, when Sweden used its neutrality to position itself as an international mediator. Joining Nato would be abandoning that dream, Ms Solomon said. Finland's neutrality was very different. It came about as a condition of peace imposed by the Soviet Union in a 1948 "friendship agreement". It was seen as a pragmatic way of surviving and maintaining the country's independence. If Sweden's neutrality was a matter of identity and ideology, in Finland it was a question of existence, said Henrik Meinander. Part of the reason Sweden could even afford to have a debate about Nato membership was because it used Finland and the Baltics as a "buffer zone", he said. Finland abandoned its neutrality after the Soviet Union collapsed. It looked to the West and sought to free itself from the Soviet sphere of influence. Iro Sarkka suggested joining Nato was seen as too big a step for Finland to take in the early 1990s, having just emerged from neutrality. But times and perceptions of risk have changed. Now, most Finns say they are ready. What obstacles did they face to joining? For weeks, Sweden and Finland's applications were held up by Turkey. Any Nato enlargement must be approved by all 30 members. The Turkish government claimed the Nordic nations were supporting what it calls terrorist organisations, including Kurdish separatists and the Gulen movement, which Turkey blames for an attempted coup in 2016. Kurds make up 15-20% of Turkey's population, and have been persecuted by Turkish authorities for generations. In exchange for its support, Turkey said it wanted Sweden and Finland to stop providing political, financial and "arms support" to the groups. It also wanted them to resume selling weapons to Turkey and hand over individuals with alleged terror links. After hours of talks at the Madrid Nato summit in late June, foreign ministers from Sweden, Finland and Turkey signed a joint security pact addressing Turkey's concerns. Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said Sweden had agreed to step up its work on Turkish extradition requests of suspected militants. The two Nordic nations also said they would lift their restrictions on selling weapons to Turkey, he added. In exchange, Turkey will lift its veto on the Nordic nations joining the alliance. With inputs from BBC

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Turkey lifts its objections to Sweden, Finland joining NATO

Turkey agreed Tuesday to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, ending an impasse that had clouded a leaders’ summit opening in Madrid

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Sweden, Finland delegations in Turkey for NATO talks

Delegations from Sweden and Finland were scheduled on Wednesday to hold talks in Ankara with senior Turkish officials

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Ukraine war: US fully backs Sweden and Finland Nato bids, Biden says

MAY 20: Sweden and Finland have the "full, total and complete backing" of the US in their decision to apply for Nato membership, President Joe Biden says. Both countries submitted their applications to be part of the Western defence alliance this week, marking a major shift in European geopolitics. To join the alliance, the two nations need the support of all 30 Nato member states. But the move by the Nordic nations has been opposed by Turkey. Speaking alongside Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish Prime Minister Sauli Niinisto at the White House on Thursday, Mr Biden called Sweden and Finland's applications "a watershed moment in European security". "New members joining Nato is not a threat to any nation," he said. The president added that having two new members in the "high north" would "enhance the security of our allies and deepen our security co-operation across the board". Russia has repeatedly said it sees Nato as a threat and has warned of "consequences" if the block proceeds with its expansion plans. Turkey has accused both Sweden and Finland of hosting suspected militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group it views as a terrorist organisation. However, both Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and British Defence Minister Ben Wallace have expressed confidence that these concerns will eventually be addressed. Mr Biden's comments came as the US Senate voted to approve a new $40bn (£32bn) bill to provide military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. It is the biggest emergency aid package so far for Ukraine. The bill - which was passed by the House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support on 10 May - was expected to be passed earlier this week, but was blocked by Kentucky Republican Rand Paul over a dispute about spending oversight. But the Republican's Senate leader Mitch McConnell dismissed these concerns and told reporters that Congress had a "moral responsibility" to support "a sovereign democracy's self-defence". "Anyone concerned about the cost of supporting a Ukrainian victory should consider the much larger cost should Ukraine lose," Mr McConnell said. Last week, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Congress to approve the package and warned that the US military only had enough funds to send weapons to Kyiv until 19 May. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the aid package as "a significant US contribution to the restoration of peace and security in Ukraine, Europe and the world". The package brings the total US aid delivered to Ukraine to more than $50bn, including $6bn for security assistance such as training, equipment, weapons and support. Another $8.7bn will be allocated to replenish stocks of US equipment already sent to Ukraine.

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Turkey threatens not to approve Sweden's NATO bid if "terrorists" not extradited

ANKARA, May 19: Turkey will not approve Sweden's NATO membership if the country does not extradite "terrorists" upon Turkish request, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday. "Supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Syria's Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorist organizations and asking us for support for NATO membership is, to say the least, inconsistent. We asked Sweden to return 30 terrorists, but they refused to do so," Erdogan said while addressing his party's lawmakers. "We cannot say yes to making this security organization deprived of security," the president said. Erdogan also told Sweden and Finland delegations not to bother coming to Ankara to convince it to approve their NATO bids. The bloc's expansion can be "meaningful" if it respects the member states' sensitivities, the Turkish president noted, urging other NATO members to "respect" Turkey's concerns about Finland and Sweden's intention to join the alliance. Finland and Sweden on Wednesday formally submitted their membership applications to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Turkey has accused both nations of supporting "terrorist organizations," referring to the PKK and YPG. Helsinki and Stockholm have reportedly rejected or dismissed Ankara's request for the extradition of "terrorists."

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Luxembourg: Turkey likely to let 2 join NATO

Luxembourg’s foreign minister says he doesn’t believe Turkey will prevent Sweden and Finland from joining NATO

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NATO expects Turkey not to hold up Finland, Sweden membership

BERLIN/STOCKHOLM, May 16: NATO and the United States said on Sunday they were confident Turkey would not hold up membership of Finland and Sweden in the Western military alliance, as the two Nordic states took firm steps to join in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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Ukraine war: Putin warns Finland joining Nato would be 'mistake'

MAY 15: He told Sauli Niinistö there was no threat to Finland's security. The exchange came during a phone call made by the Finnish president, ahead of a formal request which Finland is expected to announce very soon. Sweden has also indicated its intention to join the Western alliance, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Finland shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border with Russia. Until now, it has stayed out of Nato to avoid antagonising its eastern neighbour. Mr Putin did not make a specific threat of retaliation over Finland's move, but the Russian foreign ministry has indicated there will be retaliation. Russia's decision to suspended electricity supplies to Finland is being seen as an early sign, however. In its statement, Russian energy supplier RAO Nordic mentioned problems with payments. Finland national grid executive Reima Paivinen told the BBC the Russian suspension had not caused any problems. He said Russian imports accounted for around 10% of national supply, adding that they could be replaced from alternative sources. Following the phone call between Mr Niinistö and Mr Putin on Saturday, the Kremlin said the Russian leader had stressed the "end of the traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake since there is no threat to Finland's security". It added: "Such a change in the country's political orientation can have a negative impact on Russian-Finnish relations developed over years in a spirit of good neighbourliness and co-operation between partners." Mr Niinistö said he had told Mr Putin how recent moves by Russia, along with the invasion of Ukraine, "have altered the security environment of Finland". "The conversation was direct and straight-forward and it was conducted without aggravations. Avoiding tensions was considered important," he said. A possible stumbling block to Swedish and Finnish membership of Nato is Turkey, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused both countries of harbouring "terrorist organisations" and said he did not support their applications. It was seen as a reference to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey regards as a terrorist organisation. For decades the PKK has fought with Turkey for a Kurdish homeland. Turkey also objects to a Syrian Kurdish militia called the People's Protection Units (YPG) ,which they say is an extension of the PKK - even though they have been allied with the US in the fight against so-called Islamic State. Both Sweden and Finland have Kurdish communities, and in Sweden's case some parliamentarians have Kurdish origins. President Erdogan did not provide any proof that these communities had links with the PKK. Foreign ministers from Sweden, Turkey and Finland are meeting to try to iron out their differences. Ahead of the talks, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu echoed the comments of his president but signalled a willingness to talk. "A big majority of the Turkish people are against the membership of those countries who are supporting PKK terrorist organization ... but these are the issues that we need to talk of course with our NATO allies as well as these countries," AFP quoted him as saying. Nato, a Western military alliance, was founded in part to ward off threat from the Soviet Union in 1949. President Putin has mentioned Ukraine's intention to join the alliance as one of the reasons for the invasion of its neighbour.

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